Coach Is a Love Machine

 Yes, Coach, our soon to be 14-month old Southeastern Guide Dog puppy in training, is a love machine.  As evidenced by the photo below.

Coach is nearly invisible as five freshmen pet him.  He is rolled over on his back so they can give him belly rubs.

 We were doing the annual research project in Health class, which involved several days of research and then several days of a crossfire like debate where two opponents met to debate various health topics like steroids in sports, creatine, and risky behavior like texting and driving, etc.If we had a couple of minutes left at the end of the debates, which were generally very stressful for the kids debating, I would take the coat off of Coach and let a few kids at a time come and pet him.

He had his regulars (seen above) who LOVE HIM!  He really seems to love them back and tended to just roll over for them and let them give him belly rubs.

Kathleen shares her office with lots of stuffed animals like Fozzy bear and some weird rat-like thing that Coach really wanted to take a bite out of.  They are shown sitting in a rocking chair with a sign that says "We love Coach!"  

On Friday, I visited our lower division librarian to get a schedule to bring Coach in to read to lower division and I was hoping for a very productive meeting, but was thwarted by her office mates (shown above!).  While Kathleen wouldn't admit it, I think Fozzy bear was doing a little dance trying to distract Coach.  Coach said as much on the way back to the office.  I really don't think it was an excuse!  And the little pack rat thing kept staring at him with his shiny eyes.  I guess he couldn't help his shiny eyes, but still.  It is rude to stare.

So, we did have to leave the meeting early.  On our way out, before I could get the coat on him, we were accosted by two lovely little lower division girls who asked to pet Coach.  I looked up and said, "Well, he has to sit first. And he hasn't been the best boy, so if he is bad, we'll have to stop."

Coach sat and then the one little girl said, "Oh! Coach is ADORABLE!"

Maybe that is why the pack rat was staring.

You Meet All Sorts of People

I've heard that there is a Chinese curse that goes something like: may you leave in interesting times. The Southeastern Guide Dog Puppy Raiser Corollary is may you meet many interesting people.

Last Friday I took my car into Lincoln Mercury's body shop to get an estimate and was met by my estimater Wanda, who was this delightful older lady who was familiar with labs as she had previously owned one. She was about to pet Her Royal Highness when I explained about the coat and how she was working and couldn't be distracted. Wanda was great. She immediately made eye contact with me and dropped her hand. When we went back into the shop and neared the administrative assistant's desk, Wanda called out to her, "This dog is working! You CANNOT pet her when she has her coat on!"

The administrative assistant startled and looked up at us, "OK."

Wanda said she would go back and do my estimate and then be right back. Evidently, she did some more PR work because in about 3 minutes a man can out and peered around the admin's desk and said, "Where's the dog we can't pet?"

When she came back, she gave me my estimate and never even asked for the jacket to come off. She was a sweet lady, so I took off HRH's coat and let her pet her. HRH even broke with decorum and gave her a big smackaroo in the face, something she hardly ever does.

And then there are the others...

But you do sometimes meet the whackadoos. Friday night at Crabby Bill's, I was telling Fred the story of Wanda and had just gotten HRH settled under the table when a customer from another table stands up and comes over to our table.

She stands at out table and says the following:

"I have a therapy dog. I am now going to take my left hand and put it under the table..." At this point she has thrown out her left hand a bit like Vanna White pointing out the letter "E" and is on a downward curve toward HRH underneath the table.

"Please don't." I say. "Berkeley is a working guide dog in training and she has her coat on and can't be petted when she is working."

Before I can go on to say anything else about how guide dogs in training are different from therapy dogs. The woman leaps into the air and runs back to her table.

OK. That was weird.

Then you have the nice ones

So I was at Target and couldn't find something. I went to talk with one of the sales ladies to ask her where it might be. There happened to be a piece of popcorn about 5 inches from her foot. Some outrageously messy person had been spewing popcorn all over the store. We had been avoiding popped kernels for the entire Target visit. But here we were faced with a kernel. I put HRH into a down stay and asked my question.

"She seems to be staring at me rather intently." The saleslady said with a laugh.

"Oh, it's not you. It's that piece of popcorn in front of you."

"Well, I'll take care of that!" She scooped up the popcorn and stuck it in her pocket. "No popcorn for you." She looked at me. "Popcorn isn't good for them," and smiled. Then she answered my question.

I like the nice ones. They balance the crazy ones.